Gardening contest heads for BBC Two

Britton has presented Fern Britton Meets on the BBC and This Morning for ITV

A gardening contest featuring nine pairs of amateur horticulturalists is to air on BBC Two next year, presented by Fern Britton.

Grow, Make, Eat: The Great Allotment Challenge - the show's working title - will include skills tests such as growing vegetables and making jam.

In a similar vein to The Great British Bake-Off, one couple will be eliminated each week.

The series will be filmed in a walled garden in Oxfordshire.

Each pair of contestants will have four months prior to the filmed challenges to harvest their crop.

The challenges will test their knowledge, creativity and culinary skills.

The series will feature three experts who are authorities in their field - horticulturalist Jim Buttress; floral expert Jonathan Moseley, who will cast a creative eye over the floral arrangements; and preserves connoisseur Thane Prince.

The programme is expected to air in early 2014.

Hit show The Great British Bake-Off recently became BBC Two's most-watched programme in a decade, after 8.4 million viewers saw Frances Quinn win series four.

The successful amateur baking competition is judged by Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood and fronted by Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins.